[Austin Willard Wright]

You are talking to someone who is an ally....though not 100 percent convinced. I am very suspicious of vouchers and am imclined to oppose them for the reasons you give.

Having said that, *all* of your arguments *at least in theory* would apply equally to foodstamps yet the logical conclusion you make (e.g. government will take control of producers) did not happen in that case. For this reason, this apparent pitfall in the anti-voucher argument deserves to be taken seriously. It also deserve an explanation by opponents of vouchers....especially since serious voucher advocates, such as Friedman, make this comparison and draw conclusions from it.

[Twodees]

Where the comparison of vouchers to food stamps breaks down is in the fact that the retail gorcery trade is not a government monopoly and isn't controlled top to bottom by a federally protected union.

Grocery stores are selling goods while private schools are selling a service. There are huge differences between a market for consumable and perishable goods and a market for an intangible service.

Education is well established (though in defiance of our Constitution where federal control is concerned) as an area for government control and private schools are a rather fragile exception, serving a rather small, specialized market. For private education to become the larger part of the education industry, it would have to be uninhibited by government control. Government controlled industries are inefficient and prone to failure.

If vouchers are introduced into the current private school industry, private schools will have to expand to fill the new demand. If the demand isn't limited by the ability of the students' families to pay, growth of the private school sector will need to be very fast and the demand for qualified teachers will skyrocket.

How will politicians behave when such a vast opportunity for expansion of their powers opens up for them? I think we both know the answer to that question.